Pacific Rumors: Rivers, Sterling, Kerr, Hoiberg
Doc Rivers hadn’t ruled out leaving the Clippers in the weeks after questioning whether he’d be back with the team next season amid the Sterling maelstrom, but he finally shut the door on that possibility Thursday. Rivers said he has no plans to go anywhere, pointing to his contract, which runs two more seasons, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweets.
- Donald Sterling’s threat that he won’t pay his $2.5MM fine is immaterial, since the NBA would simply take it out of the television rights money the league distributes to teams, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com points out (on Twitter).
- Some Warriors players are withholding welcomes for new coach Steve Kerr out of support for the ousted Mark Jackson, and one Warriors player suggests race played a factor in the coaching change, as he tells Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher.
- The Warriors had talks with Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg before hiring Kerr, but there was no formal interview or offer from the team, reports Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Kerr and Stan Van Gundy were the top two candidates, with Hoiberg and Lionel Hollins waiting on the next tier, Kawakami believes (All Twitter links).
- Kerr’s base salary is $22MM, with incentives that could take the pay on his five-year deal up to the $25MM figure that’s been previously reported, a source tells Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- The Kings will attempt to trade for a second-round pick, tweets Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee.
- A Kings representative who spoke with Jones mentioned Zach LaVine as a draft prospect he liked, though the team official cautioned that the lottery could change the landscape (Twitter link).
Draft Combine Updates: Friday
We gathered a slew of reports connecting draft prospects with teams yesterday on the first full day of the Chicago draft combine, and we’ll do the same today with this post. The latest updates will be on top as we follow the action throughout.
- Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders adds the Pistons, Kings and Suns to the list of teams interviewing Noah Vonleh (Twitter link).
- The Pistons met with Rodney Hood, Ellis tweets, and the Thunder also met with him, Holmes notes (on Twitter).
- Thanasis Antetokounmpo sat down with the Nets, Knicks, Pacers, Cavs, Wizards and Pelicans, according to Woelfel (Twitter link).
2:00pm updates:
- The Pistons have met with Smart and Zach LaVine, according to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press and Keith Langlois of Pistons.com, respectively (Twitter links).
- Smart is also among the players interviewing with the Celtics tonight, according to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, and the C’s spoke with Aaron Gordon, too, fellow Globe scribe Baxter Holmes notes (Twitter links).
- Gordon also met with the Magic, who are set to meet with James Michael McAdoo, as well, according to Robbins (Twitter links).
- Tyler Ennis is meeting with the Bucks today after interviewing with the Bulls on Thursday, as Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times and Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com report (Twitter links).
- Jarnell Stokes already worked out for the Raptors, according to Wolstat (on Twitter).
12:02pm updates:
- Dante Exum‘s interview with the Magic went well, he said, adding that the team would like to bring him to Central Florida for a workout, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Robbins, in a full piece, added Marcus Smart to the list of top prospects who’ve interviewed with the Magic.
- Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge expressed a fondness for Smart today in an interview with ESPN’s Andy Katz on the network’s coverage of the combine, as Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv notes (on Twitter).
- Gary Harris told Katz he met with the Raptors, Nuggets, Grizzlies and Pistons, as Zagoria once more passes along via Twitter.
- The Raptors will interview Jordan Adams today, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun, who says the team also spoke with James Young (Twitter links).
- Zagoria adds the Sixers, Spurs, Clippers, Mavs, Nuggets, Warriors and Bulls to the list of teams that Kyle Anderson either met or is slated to meet (Twitter link).
- Markel Brown said he’ll talk with the Celtics today, according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com (Twitter link).
Latest On Knicks Coaching Search
2:24pm: Phil Jackson and Mike Dunleavy Sr. met this morning, a source tells Marc Berman of the New York Post. The two have had occasional casual meetings for a while, but today’s encounter was more than just a friendly get-together, Berman hears. It’s still unclear whether Jackson considers Dunleavy a strong candidate, a source close to Dunleavy tells Berman.
8:52am: There were no indications as of Thursday afternoon that the Knicks would consider Mark Jackson for the coaching vacancy, but apparently that’s changed, as Marc Berman of the New York Post hears that the former Warriors coach is on New York’s tentative list of candidates. The Knicks are also likely to interview Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis and Bucks assistant Jim Cleamons, assuming they get permission from their respective teams, and Knicks president Phil Jackson is high on Pacers assistant Nate McMillan, too, Berman writes.
Berman echoes earlier reports that the Knicks are eyeing Thunder guard Derek Fisher to coach the team. Still, a source tells the Post scribe that there’s concern about a bidding war between the Knicks and Lakers over Fisher, who plans to retire from playing when Oklahoma City’s postseason run ends. Fisher has expressed less than full-throated enthusiasm about coaching next season, as Berman notes.
Phil Jackson is OK with hiring an established coach who doesn’t specialize in the triangle, but he’d want someone willing to adopt at least a semblance of the triple-post offense, according to Berman. That conflicts somewhat with Thursday’s prevailing wisdom that the Knicks were focused mainly on young coaches with ties to the Knicks president. Other candidates who appear to be in the mix include Nuggets coach Brian Shaw, Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg, Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue and Lakers D-League assistant Luke Walton.
Knicks Likely To Pursue Steve Blake
The Knicks are expected to pursue Steve Blake in free agency this summer, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com, who confirms an earlier report from Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that team president Phil Jackson told Raymond Felton he will seek to trade him this summer. The 34-year-old Blake just finished the final season of a four-year, $16MM contract that he signed in 2010 with the Lakers, who traded him to the Warriors at the deadline this year.
Blake has been primarily a reserve the past five seasons, though he started in all 27 of his appearances for the Lakers this year in place of Steve Nash, who missed most of the season with a variety of ailments. Blake has also missed significant time the past two seasons, having played in only 100 of a possible 164 regular season games. He would seem an odd choice to replace Felton, who was New York’s starting point guard, but perhaps Jackson is only seeking him for the bench and will go after a starting-caliber point guard via trade. It’ll be difficult for the Knicks, who’ll likely end up in the tax again next season, to bring in a starting point guard via free agency, since they’ll probably only have the taxpayer’s mid-level to offer.
It’ll be a similarly tough assignment for agent Joel Bell to find a deal for his client that closely resembles his last contract, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blake sign for more than the minimum salary, especially given the apparent interest this early in the offseason. Blake has spoken of his affection for the Lakers and Warriors, so a reunion with Jackson, his former coach, might not be tops on his wish list. The Knicks could probably snag him for a portion of their smaller mid-level, worth $3.278MM, leaving them with an opportunity to ink one more non-minimum free agent.
Wizards Links: Gortat, Ariza, Wittman, Miller
Marc Stein of ESPN.com continues his Summer Scoop series with a look at the Wizards, who have little to be disappointed about in spite of last night’s playoff elimination at the hands of the Pacers. We’ll sum up the highlights here and pass along some additional insight:
- The Wizards are indeed interested in re-signing Trevor Ariza as well as Marcin Gortat, but there’s concern that they’ll prove too expensive to retain, Stein writes, pointing to Gortat as the team’s top priority should it have to choose. Martell Webster shot a dreadful 23.1% from behind the arc in the postseason, but he looms as a superior plan B at small forward than anyone the Wizards have to replace Gortat, Stein suggests.
- J. Michael of CSNWashington.com pegs the salary that the Wizards will have to shell out to retain Gortat at about $10MM. Executives around the league believe Gortat and Ariza will cost a combined $15-20MM in annual salaries, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe reported this week.
- Coach Randy Wittman, whose contract is up, is likely to return as coach, Stein hears, but there was chatter entering the playoffs that a loss in the first-round would prompt the Wizards to dump Wittman and pursue George Karl and Alvin Gentry. Now the only question is whether the team will offer Wittman a one-year deal to align his contract with that of GM Ernie Grunfeld, which expires after next season, or make it a long-term pact for the coach.
- The Wizards are leaning toward retaining Andre Miller, whose $4.625MM salary for next season is only guaranteed for $2MM, but they haven’t made up their minds yet, Stein reports.
Hawks Pursue Omer Asik As Rockets Shop Lin
The Hawks are among the teams pursuing Rockets center Omer Asik as Houston attempts to trade Asik and Jeremy Lin to clear cap room for Carmelo Anthony, according to Sam Smith of Bulls.com, who works the news into his weekly mailbag column. Still, Rockets GM Daryl Morey recently said he doesn’t expect to trade Asik or Lin in pursuit of a marquee player, and he’s downplayed the notion of trading his backup center ever since his self-imposed December deadline for swapping Asik passed.
Rumors have persisted nevertheless, particularly given a March report that identified Houston as one of two non-New York landing spots atop his list of preferred free agent destinations. The Rockets have roughly $57MM in commitments beneath the projected $63.2MM cap for next season. Shedding the cap hits for Asik and Lin would give the team an additional $16.7MM in flexibility, putting them in range of the nearly $22.5MM maximum salary for which Anthony is eligible. It would still be difficult, if not impossible, to find teams willing to absorb both Asik and Lin without giving up salary in return, particularly given their balloon payments of $15MM each for this season, as I explained in November.
The cap figure for Asik, like Lin, will be slightly less than $8.4MM, significantly less than what they actually make next season. Still, I’m not certain Asik would be the proper fit on a team that liberally launched three-pointers this season and found success with that strategy in the playoffs against the Pacers, particularly if the Hawks envision moving Al Horford to power forward, as Smith suggests. That would be similar to the sort of situation in which Asik found himself this year next to Dwight Howard on a Houston team that prioritizes floor spacing.
Asik is nonetheless a highly skilled interior defender whose contract would expire after next season, giving Atlanta the chance to go after the juicy 2015 free agent class. It’s unclear what the Hawks would be willing to surrender in return, but I’d imagine the Rockets would prefer that it center on draft compensation, given their apparent desire to clear salary for this summer.
Bulpett’s Latest: Ainge, Rondo, Green, Trades
Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald hears the Celtics are seemingly more open to trading Rajon Rondo than ever, though Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has batted down similar rumors for several months. Ainge once more went on the offensive against the chatter surrounding the star point guard, as Bulpett observes.
“That’s all speculation,” Ainge said. “Those aren’t facts. People don’t know that, so it’s just people speculating on Rondo’s free agency next summer. That’s all that you’re hearing. You’re not hearing any facts from anybody. Those conversations haven’t even been discussed, so that’s just speculation.”
Bulpett has more from Ainge and other Celtics news in his must-read piece, and we’ll sum up the highlights here:
- Ainge believes he must make significant trades to surround Rondo with talent to convince him to stay when his contract expires after next season. Still, Ainge nonetheless thinks that as long as Rondo sees the Celtics gathering momentum toward a revival, that will be enough, Bulpett writes. “We love Rondo, and Rondo loves us,” Ainge told Bulpett. “We don’t feel like there’s pressure that we have to do something or there’s some sort of deadline that something has to get done by. You know, sure Rondo has to see progress and Rondo has to believe that we’re going to be contenders and be in the picture and have something. But that’s an ongoing thing. I mean, we feel that way with everybody.”
- Several teams are waiting to see where the Celtics end up in the lottery before talking trade with Ainge and his staff, according to Bulpett. Boston is projected to wind up with the fifth overall pick.
- The Wizards have held an interest in Jeff Green in recent years, Grantland’s Zach Lowe noted this week, but Bulpett hears that Green holds no current appeal to Washington, given the two years and $18.4MM remaining on his deal.
Phil Jackson Tells Felton To Expect Trade
Knicks president Phil Jackson told Raymond Felton last month that he’ll trade him during the offseason, a source tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. Felton, in the middle of a four-year contract worth close to $14.9MM, is coming off arguably his worst NBA season, and is facing two felony weapons charges stemming from an arrest in February.
The Knicks came close to trading Felton to the Clippers at the deadline this past season, before the team hired Jackson, but L.A. was reluctant to take the point guard on as part of a package that included Iman Shumpert. Felton drew criticism around that time from an NBA executive who, in a conversation with Zagoria, called him “the worst starting point guard in the NBA.”
Felton, who’ll turn 30 next month, averaged a career-low 9.7 points per game this past season, though that’s partly attributable to his dip in shot attempts per contest, which were also at a career low of 9.4. He averaged 5.6 assists and 2.0 turnovers per game, a respectable ratio, though his 31.8% three-point shooting was subpar. It was an overall decline from the previous season, when he recorded a 15.2 PER, and his 12.9 PER this year was just one of many numbers that were lower this season than in 2012/13 for the Knicks.
The Wasserman Media Group client will make more than $3.637MM next season, and he has a player option worth more than $3.95MM for 2015/16. It would probably take a bounceback year for him to consider opting out, so the contract won’t be easy for Jackson to unload this summer.
Blazers Sign Terry Stotts To Multiyear Deal
11:35pm: Portland picked up its 2014/15 option on Stotts and added two years to the deal, the last of which is a team option for the 2016/17 season, reports Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. That conflicts with Wojnarowski’s initial report that the team would decline next year’s option in favor of an entirely new contract.
5:08pm: The Blazers have signed Stotts to a multiyear contract extension, according to a team release. No terms of the deal have been released.
2:14pm: The Blazers have held off on exercising the 2014/15 option on their contract with coach Terry Stotts, but they’re close to an agreement on a new multiyear contract that will wipe out the option season, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. GM Neil Olshey opposes the idea of negotiating during the season, but as Portland made strides this year, concern grew among the Blazers staff and seemingly with Stotts himself as his fate for next season remained unresolved. There was speculation that his future would hinge on the team’s success in the playoffs, but an appearance in the second round left little doubt that Stotts would be sticking around, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote earlier today.
Stotts had a rough start in Portland after the Blazers hired him two years ago, inheriting a team that had taken a step back, and he managed just a 33-49 record in 2012/13. The Blazers used a strong start to surge to 54-28 this season, earning the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoffs and a first-round date with the Rockets, whom they dispatched in six games before falling to San Antonio in round two. The resurgence helped solidify the team’s shaky relationship with LaMarcus Aldridge, who’s considering an extension with the club as he nears his 2015 free agency.
The client of coaching super-agent Warren LeGarie has also overseen the development of Damian Lillard, who won Rookie of the Year last season and took a step forward in year two, with his series-clinching three-pointer against Houston a defining moment. This past season was by far the best in Stotts’ six-year head coaching career, as it was the first time he’d piloted a team to a winning record.
And-Ones: Draft, Sterling, Pippen
Doug McDermott came in at just over 6’6″ in height and 6’9″ in wingspan at the combine, measurements that a league executive tells Sean Deveney of The Sporting News are “potentially disastrous” for the projected top-10 pick. Deveney thinks the forward will slip into the late lottery or worse. The measurements increase the concerns over his ability to defend at the wing we noted in our prospect profile of the Creighton All-American. Here’s a roundup of more of tonight’s notes from around the league:
- Julius Randle, Noah Vonleh, Jerami Grant, Kyle Anderson, and DeAndre Daniels all turned out average or better measurements in wingspan, per Deveney. Randle’s length was of particular concern prior to the combine, as we noted in our prospect profile of the Kentucky forward.
- Nik Stauskas unexpectedly sat out combine drills today, telling reporters including Brendan F. Quinn of MLive.com that he had little to gain by demonstrating his established shooting skills. Instead, the shooting guard hopes to prove his stock through physical testing and interviews at the combine.
- The league likely won’t take action to strip the Clippers from Donald Sterling until after the season, reports Michael McMann of SI.com in a piece outlining the steps the NBA will take to perform the ouster.
- McCann says that a divorce between the Sterlings, or any other attempts to complicate the legal process, likely won’t hinder the league’s efforts based on straightforward CBA provisions for ownership transition.
- Donald Sterling’s lawyer sent a letter to the league, threatening to sue the NBA and informing the league of his client’s refusal to pay the $2.5MM fine levied against him by Adam Silver, McCann reports in a separate piece.
- The fine was already past due, and failure to pay should actually bolster the league’s case, tweets Larry Coon of Basketball Insiders.
- Scottie Pippen is considering an offer to work for the Knicks, possibly as an assistant coach, according to a report from Marc Berman of The New York Post.